


Don't Tempt The Hound

by dirkygoodness



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Charles has problems, Erik blames himself, Erik has problems too, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, No one knows what to do with their feeling and problems and its getting old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 19:52:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2519768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirkygoodness/pseuds/dirkygoodness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm not mad at you, Charles."<br/>Never you, Charles. Not really. I couldn't really be mad at you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Tempt The Hound

**Author's Note:**

> In my sick-induced exhaustion I somehow came out with this. This is what happens when you read Cherik at four in the morning and having the flu.  
> aND I'M SO SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATING ITS JUST A LOT OF SHIT HAPPENED WITH MY SCHOOL AND PERSONAL LIFE AND I HAVEN'T REALLY BEEN ABLE TO WRITE. I'M GOING TO TRY AND POST SOME MORE NEW STUFF AFTER THIS AND UPDATE MY OLDER STUFF.  
> Sorry for inconveniences, misspellings, and any other mistakes I tried to fix as much as I could.

Charles had dreams when he was very little, nightmares or freakish mutated versions of them. They'd gone away once he'd trained himself, once he'd taught himself to stop going into hundreds of other peoples minds while he slept, taking their fears and turning them into his own, all at once. Though he still had the occasional nightmare of his family, mostly of his mother. 

After Cuba, Charles started to have nightmares again. He was able to hide them rather well at first, for the first few days where the shock of him losing his legs hadn't really set in and he was in a more indifferent trance like state.

Only after about a week there did it start to get worse. People only noticed when he woke up screaming in his room. He'd fessed up then, telling them what was happening. Erik was slightly shocked that he'd kept it to himself, the part that wanted Charles to be more like him, but at the same time he wasn't.

Charles was the kind of man that kept to himself for the sake of not being a burden on other people. He cared too much for them to let them take care of him. And Erik, the man who'd immobilized Charles - even if it hadn't been on purpose - couldn't bring himself to try and help.

That didn't mean he didn't want to, no, it was that he cared enough to know that he shouldn't try and help the man. He'd broken Charles, he'd taken away his ability to walk and he'd been ready to just leave him on that beach.

And he would have, he would have left Charles on the beach to die or survive or whatever it was that came upon him, but he'd stopped, dead in his tracks. He couldn't -  _wouldn't_ \- leave Charles like that. He'd at least bring him to the hospital.

But the it'd gone to, _No, I can't leave him here either. Not like this, not in this much pain. I'll wait until he out of the hospital._

Erik was still clinging onto a little shred of that, giving himself some reason to stay without feeling like he needed to be locked up in Charles basement, away from him. So, he stayed away.

He wouldn't touch Charles, he hadn't even touched him since they'd gotten back to the mansion. Not to get his attention, not to hug, nothing. The only thing he'd done vaguely similar to a touch had been bringing him up the stairs of that overly large house.

And only then when Charles had had no other choice and had looked at Erik and asked in a tired voice, "Please get me up the stairs."

And he'd done so without question. Erik wouldn't do anything to harm, or even make Charles  _uncomfortable,_ even if it meant he'd have to keep his distance.

That was until Charles had projected in his sleep. Erik had worked harder than he had before that day, running around for Charles' students (Charles usually called them that, though sometimes he'd slip and call them his children. Not that Erik minded.), though there weren't very many, and those who were there weren't really children.

More so people like Raven and himself. He'd made it rather clear when he'd returned that he'd need to do anything, anything that would help him pay for his crimes. So, he did chores for them.

Nothing too taboo, only things like becoming their personal training dummy that was harder to hit because he moved. But he'd also taken it upon himself to do any and all household repairs needed doing.

Like re-roofing the entire house, and putting broken things back to themselves, like getting those almost twenty pipes back into their original shape after a particularly stressed girl with telekinesis had bent them out of shape so bad he'd ended up having to replace two of them.

He'd also re-arranged the living room and one of the mini-libraries over ten times until Raven had stated it was good. (He figured she'd been fucking with him, her hatred having grown for him almost taking her away and also for not doing so. He couldn't really blame her though.)  

He'd finally gone to bed with every muscle burning under his skin and his guilt slightly less intense to a point where he'd thought he could be able to sleep. He'd only been laying down for two hours when Charles had sent him a mass and horribly intense amount of pain, guilt, sadness, fear and all sorts of other emotions too jumbled up he couldn't tell what they were.

They were so similar to his own that he'd almost mistaken them for his own nightmares. Almost.

But Erik knew Charles too well, knowing the difference between them as if they were cat and dog. He'd spent many a time memorizing and trying to understand the other that he could still sometimes predict what his speeches would consist of or what his comment to Raven would be.

And most of all he knew what Charles fear and sadness and pain was. He'd gotten enough visual on that island on Cuba for a life time. And he'd been so startled by what Charles had sent him and how intensely, he'd fallen out of bed.

Hitting his head none to gently on his nightstand, before pain - pain that was so blatantly not his own that Erik felt like he wanted to fall out of bed again.

He took a few moments to gather himself, pain and some strange  _phantom pain_ mixing nauseatingly in his head, before he was pulling himself up so quickly he was sure if he didn't have so much adrenaline rushing through his body he would have fallen over from dizziness.

Then he started running, his mined a blurred and jumbled together mess.

_CharlespainwrongscaredCharlessomethingwronggettoCharlesCharlesCharles_

 As he ran he internally cursed himself for his own guilt, having taken a room so far away from Charles that it was basically in another state. Charles had moved to a room on the ground floor, it having a larger door and obviously not wanting Erik to bring him up and down the stares every time he wanted to go to bed.

Hank was busy building him a sort of lift to get him up and down without help of Erik. He was also making the lift entirely out of plastic. And so Erik had taken one on the top floor, only not taking the attic because it really wasn't fit for anyone living,  _sleeping_ , up there and Charles wouldn't let him. No one else was up there.

Which he was slightly thankfully for seeing as he was stumbling and crashing into walls, his head throbbing and making everything around him blurry as Charles tossed his dream at Erik, images and emotions spinning before him so fast it was like double vision.

He didn't even register making it down the stares, and he hoped he didn't fall, but from the way his ribs were aching he figured that was a dull hope. 

 Finally, after what felt like forever, Erik makes it to Charles room and he suddenly wishes he hadn't ever come because now that he's closer, Charles is projecting more, stronger and  _harder_ , his head burning now in what felt like someone dunking his head in lava.

He wanted to scream and rip his head open and he wondered how on earth the others weren't hearing this, and maybe they were just not waking up from it.

Clenching his teeth, he pushed the door open, not even caring if he was being loud anymore (not like he care much in the first place), barging into Charles room, before stumbling towards his bed, falling to the floor just before it, his balance giving out on him.  

He groaned, his chin throbbing with its collision with the floor, looking up with one eye open at the man in the bed, still sleeping, but obviously not soundly. 

 "Charles." He said, voice ruff and cracking from lack of use. He coughed, trying again. " _Charles_ _."_

 No answer. Erik lifts himself up, the room spinning only slightly less that it was before, getting his legs underneath him after a few tries before he pulled himself up and towards Charles bed.

"Charles, wake up." He sat on the bed, talking louder than he had been before. Charles flinches slightly, but other than that seems not to hear him.

Erik almost wants to punch him, but he wont hurt Charles, not again. Instead, breaking his other promise not to ever touch the telepath again, grabs his shoulders and shakes him roughly.  

 "Wake  _up_ , Charles." Erik all but shouts, and Charles is up with a gasp and a wild swing towards his face that lands with a force Erik didn't even think the younger man possessed.

He goes backwards, his already questionable balance sending him over and off Charles massive bed and he lands on the floor again, this time on hardwood. 

He's surprised he doesn't have a concussion after this. He almost gets up to hit Charles back in his anger, but Charles gasps again and comes to look over the side of his bed at there Erik fell onto the floor. 

"Erik! My goodness, are you alright?" He asks, eyes sparkling with concern and Erik wants to laugh because that's  _not_  why he came here, he came here to see if Charles is alright.

"'M fine." He gets out, sitting up with a groan as he rubs the back of his head. "Are you?" He asks looking at Charles with more concern leaking into his face than he would have particularly cared for, though he doubted Charles could even tell with the lights so dim. 

Charles eyebrows knit together and his head cocks to the side in question. Erik clears his throat, clarifying. "You woke me up." He says, tapping his own head for emphasis. Charles face goes white with fear and he looks like hes about to cry.

"Oh,  _oh god_ , Erik I didn't mean-"

"Charles. It's fine. You just woke me up is all." He doesn't add how he would have woken up anyway, sooner or later from his own nightmares. "But, really, are you alright? You were rather" He pauses, trying to think of a word to describe it, but in all honesty he really can't think of something that would describe how it felt to share someones dream. " _loud_." 

 "Ah. Yes, well I'm used to them. Nothing to really worry about, though I will have to try and perfect staying out of your mind while the happen." Erik tried to ignore the part where it sounded as if Charles knew he'd only gotten into Erik's mind. "I truly am sorry." 

 Erik waved him off, shaking his head. It wasn't like he'd done it on purpose. Suddenly Erik remembers something and looks like someone had killed his cat. "Oh, shit." He says and doesn't even register that he's reverted to German, before he looks at Charles.

"I shouldn't have - I didn't mean - how I woke you, I didn't-" He breaks off, realizing he was speaking a language that Charles only knew a few vague terms of and he clears his throat, looking slightly embarrassed. Taking a calming breath, he tries again.

"I touched you."

Charles blinked. "Yes."

"I didn't mean to do that. I shouldn't have, but I had to wake you, you were - were, uhm, projecting or whatever and it was mostly pain and I couldn't really - it - I  _had_ to touch you to get you up-"

"Erik." Charles says calmly, a hint of what Erik thinks is pity seeping into his voice and Erik doesn't need that, he doesn't need Charles' pity because Erik didn't do anything to deserve it and it's  _wrong_.  

"Erik." Charles repeats, like its some type of cure to calm down the German, and it might as well have been, Erik calming almost instantly to look and listen to the smaller man.

Charles smiles gently, reaching out and touching Erik's hand which is resting between the two men. Erik flinches, but Charles doesn't seem to notice, or if he does, he doesn't care. Instead, he continues to talk.

"It's fine." He states simply. Like Erik didn't do something unwanted or horrible and Erik finds himself utterly confused and frustrated.

Because Charles should be angry, he should be hitting Erik again like he'd done just a moment ago, because Erik took away something that was his, tried to take more and in the end stayed because guilt and something else he refused to recognize had forced him too.

Charles should want to kick him out, to be sickened by the mere  _presence_  of him. He's obviously showing his confusion on his face - or maybe he's projecting - either way, Charles seemed to understand almost instantly and his face goes soft.

 "Oh, my friend." Charles says and something inside Erik breaks as he hears it. _Friend_. Even now, even though Erik's betrayed every ounce of trust they once shared, Charles still considered him a friend.

He felt something like a deep, painful longing in the pit of his stomach. "I've know what you've been doing, keeping a distance, but I hadn't know it was for this reason. I thought you were mad."

"I'm not mad at  _you_ , Charles." Erik states blatantly, voice firm as stone even though he feels like vomiting all over himself.

He doesn't add what he wants to, he doesn't say  _Never you, Charles. Not really. I couldn't really be mad at you. Never._ Charles nods sadly, patting Erik's hand.

"I know that now. But you can not be mad at yourself, Erik." Charles tells him. Charles always tells him things. Things that he wished he could believe. But he just can't, no matter how hard he tries. "You didn't cause this. You hear me, Erik? You  _didn't cause this_." But Erik shakes his head because he did, he did cause this. Weather he wanted it to happen or not, it was his fault.

"No. It wasn't." Charles scolds him, and god does Erik miss this. He misses him. Misses Charles. "It wasn't your fault, it wasn't my fault, and it wasn't the humans fault. Not alone anyway, Erik. We all caused this. This is all of our faults. So don't you make yourself feel worse than you already do. It. Was. Not. Your. Fault." 

Erik's not sure when he started crying but now that he is he's not sure he can stop. He looks up at Charles with water in his eyes and a pained expression and he knows Charles can tell what he's feeling because he's feeling so much of it right now there's no way he couldn't. And Erik doesn't care.

"But I hurt  _you_." 

"We hurt each other, Erik." And with that the taller of the two can't hold back anymore, tears flowing steadily down his face and little sobs wrecking his body, leaning forwards and brings Charles into his arms. Charles reacts instantly, like he'd been wanting to do this for the two months they'd been there, holding onto Erik like a lifeline. 

"I'm sorry." Erik says. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." And he can't stop saying it, repeating it as he sobs onto Charles shirt and making it damp. The smaller man just strokes his hair and hushes him, holding him gently.

And at that moment Erik doesn't really care that he shouldn't be showing this much weakness, he doesn't care that he's supposed to be the great, terrifying Magneto, because Magneto died the same time Erik took Charles legs. 

"I love you." Erik says, and he doesn't stop himself from saying it. He couldn't if he tried.

And Charles holds him tighter, shaking with sobs as well. "I love you too, Erik Lehnsherr." 


End file.
